Daily News

Lawmakers took several important steps during the session just completed toward bringing together two North Carolinas vintage year for the General Assembly. Some of the chains holding back North Carolina’s poorest counties were cut. Those counties will benefit, too, from steps taken to raise the standard of living across the state.

The heaviest burden has long been public schools’ lack of the resources they need to help children from poor families learn at the same pace as their more fortunate peers. Uncompetitive salaries and unfavorable working conditions often put the best teachers beyond the reach of poor counties. Facilities may be substandard. Results are predictable: high dropout rates and a low-skill work force, completing a vicious cycle of economic stagnation.

This year poor school districts, at last, will receive additional state dollars to catch up to the statewide average for public school support. By adding $41.9 million to a fund for them, lawmakers made good on a decade-old promise.

The money comes from a $2.4 billion revenue surplus produced by a welcome improvement in the state economy. That also made it possible for legislators to give teachers the biggest single pay raise in years. All North Carolina school systems should fare better in the national competition for teachers, but the 8 percent pay raise is a particularly helpful antidote to recruitment problems in poor districts. (more…)

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 2:50 am and is filed under Daily News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.